The Exit Interview

What would you have said on the way out?

Most people never get a real exit interview. The ones who do rarely say what they actually think. This is the one you didn't get to give — published anonymously, in your words.

AnonymousYour name is never used, in the episode or anywhere else
No employer namedDescribed by type and size only — never named or located
Edited to protect youWe remove any detail that could identify you or them
Release requiredBoth boxes below must be checked before you can submit
Why bother

The people who can fix this are listening.

This show isn't for recruiters. The audience is chief people officers, COOs, chief executives, and board members — the people who write the job description, set the mandate, and decide what a role is really going to be.

They are, almost always, trying to get it right. What they don't have is a way to hear what it was actually like from the person who left. Nobody tells them. The exit interview is scheduled by the same HR team the person is leaving, and everyone in the room knows it.

So what you write here does something a survey can't. It puts a real account in front of a decision-maker who has the authority to change how the next version of your old job gets built — the scope, the support, the honesty in the interview.

And it doesn't stop there. A leader who stays is a team that isn't rebuilt every eighteen months. A team that holds is a unit where people know each other's names and catch the things that get missed. That reaches patients. It's a long chain, but it's a real one — and it starts with someone being willing to say the quiet part out loud.

Somebody's next role gets better because you were honest about yours.

And if that's not why you're here

That's fine too.

Maybe you don't want to fix healthcare today. Maybe you just carried something out of that job that you never got to put down, and you've been holding it a while.

You can say it here. No one has to know it was you, and nobody's going to ask you to be gracious about it.

Getting it off your chest is reason enough.

Before you write

The whole segment depends on nobody being identifiable — you least of all. Keep to the left column and we can publish it. Anything in the right column and we can't, so please leave it out rather than making us cut it.

Say it this way
  • "an academic medical center" · "a safety-net hospital" · "an FQHC"
  • Size in broad bands: "under 200 beds," "over 500 beds"
  • Your role generically: "a nursing leader," "an operations executive"
  • "a few years ago" — never a specific year or month
  • What happened to you, and how it felt
Please leave out
  • Any organization name, former name, or brand
  • Any city, state, or region — "the Midwest" identifies too
  • Anyone's name or a one-of-a-kind title
  • Exact bed counts, headcounts, dollar figures, dates
  • Anything that was publicly reported — a lawsuit, survey, merger
  • Allegations of illegal conduct — that belongs with a lawyer, not a podcast

Your exit interview

Release — both required
Kimberly reads every one of these herself. We don't publish everything we receive, and we'll tell you if yours runs.
✓

Received — thank you.

That took something to write. Kimberly reads every submission herself, usually within a few business days.

If yours is selected, we'll email you before it airs so you know when to listen. If it isn't a fit for the segment, we'll tell you that too.